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UCSB   LIBRARY 


DISCOURSE 


AT     THE 


ORDINATION  OF  MR.  CHARLES  LOWE, 

AS   ASSOCIATE  PASTOR 


* 

OVEU    THE 


FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL  SOCIETY, 

NEW  BEDFORD,  JULY  28,  1832. 


BY  JOHN  WEISS. 


Bcbforfr  : 

P  R  E  S  S    OF    BENJAMIN    L  I  N  D  S  E  Y. 

1852, 


DISCOURSE 


i.  con.  xv.  46. 

SlOW  BE  IT  THAT  WAS  yOT  FIRST  WHICH  IS  SPIRITUAL,  BUT  THAT  WHICH 
IS  NATURAL;  AXD  AFTERWARD  THAT  WHICH  IS  SPIRITUAL. 

FOR  several  years  new  facts  from  the  domain  of 
science  have  been  crowding  upon  us,  much  faster 
than  they  can  be  either  interpreted  or  classified. 
From  their  uncomfortable  tyranny  some  persons 
take  refuge  in  disbelief:  for  even  to  the  best  minds 
nothing  is  so  aggravating  as  a  fact  which  does  not 
appear  to  connect  itself  with  knowledge  as  hitherto 
developed  and  explained.  They  cannot  rest  till  they 
either  deny  it  or  reduce  it  to  a  system.  If  they  do 
not  love  investigation  enough  to  tarry  for  its  linger- 
ing results,  they  do  the  former :  but  if  they  are  wil- 
ling to  wait  till  Nature  shows  them  how  she  absorbs 
and  civilizes  this  strange  fact,  it  is  through  much  un- 
happiness  and  trial  of  their  faith.  But  the  majority 
<>f  people  are  intoxicated  by  a  physical  discovery, 
and  reel  unsteadily  into  an  interpretation  that  is 
more  marvellous  and  repelling  than  the  thing  to  be 
explained.  Especially  if  the  new  fact  spring  from 


the  human  organization,  so  that  it  falls  into  the  hands' 
of  many  persons  of  little  culture  and  with  no  habits' 
of  investigation,  we  may  expect  to  hear  it  used  to 
subvert  not  only  established  beliefs,  but  its  own  real 
significance.  The  heat  of  the  moment  is  unfavor- 
able to  a  display  of  its  legitimate  tendency.  Among 
these  strange  and  costly  facts,  people  act  like  a  mob 
which  has  broken  into  a  cathedral,  carrying  the  broad 
haste  of  revolution  among  things  which  should  only 
be  touched  by  quiet  and  priestly  fingers.  Over 
their  soiled  and  dishevelled  attire  they  haul  the  holy 
vestments ;  they  toss  about  the  symbols ;  they  drink 
their  coarse  liquor  out  of  consecrated  cups;  they 
take  revenge  upon  the  sacred  splendors  for  having 
excited  their  surprise,  and  unconsciously  stifle  rev- 
erence in  sport.  Their  whole  behavior  is  a  misin- 
terpretation of  things  which  have  definite  and  salu- 
tary uses. 

All  these  facts,  connected  with  the  human  brain, 
involving  its  past  history,  its  present  organization, 
and  its  unexpected  capacities,  suffer  under  a  twofold 
misinterpretation.  Some  of  them  support  a  regu- 
larly systematized  materialism,  others  nourish  a  mis- 
called spiritualism,  which  will  sink  into  a  most 
hopeless  materialism,  when  science  strips  from  its 
facts  the  supernatural  mask,  and  reduces  them  to  the 
physical  order ;  indifference  to  the  laws  of  spirit  will 
succeed  to  this  imitation  of  spiritual  agency.  But 
the  general  result  of  both  of  these  misinterpretations 
will  be  the  same.  The  relation  of  man  to  nature1 


and  to  God  will  be  mystified,  disturbed,  degraded. 
The  reverence,  the  independent  power,  the  sustained 
existence  of  a  human  soul  will  be  lost  amid  the  rub- 
bish of  these  theories.  The  faculties  which  open 
toward  the  invisible  world,  and  which  gain  their 
nourishment  by  a  genuine  influx  according  to  spir- 
itual rules,  will  shrivel  and  sink  away  from  their 
proper  light  and  air.  And  man  will  be  left,  an  ani- 
mal with  the  highest  type  of  brain,  which  throbs  or 
ceases,  according  as  the  subtle  element  rises  or  falls 
within  its  organs.  The  words  of  love  and  beauty 
need  be  uttered  no  longer ;  there  is  no  independent 
soul  to  rise  and  enjoy  a  brief  ransom  in  the  act  of 
prayer.  These  popular  degrading  tendencies  demand 
our  close  attention.  We  must  contribute  something 
towards  the  construction  of  a  final  answer  to  this 
widely  spread  materialism,  and  the  spiirual  laws 
which  connect  the  soul  with  an  invisible  sphere  must 
be  proclaimed  and  proved. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  form  of  a  sermon  involves 
great  disadvantages  when  we  proceed  to  state  the 
physical  basis  for  the  new  kind  of  materialism.  The 
facts  are  not  yet  so  generally  accepted  that  people 
will  be  content  merely  with  an  exposure  of  the  false 
interpretations  that  are  forced  upon  them.  There- 
fore in  attempting  to  discriminate  so  far  as  to  receive 
unusual  facts,  but  to  deny  the  system  which  they  are 
used  to  support,  a  sermon  must  appear  to  be  guilty 
of  bold  and  unwarranted  generalizations,  or  else 
swell  into  a  treatise,  and  defeat  the  religious  object 


peculiar  to  its  form.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  as 
important  to  acknowledge  the  facts  as  it  is  to  deny 
the  use  that  is  made  of  them ;  for  they  fill  many  a 
ehasm  in  our  scientific  knowledge,  and  their  legiti- 
mate uses  promise  to  increase  our  welfare.  But  my 
present  object  is  not  chiefly  to  discuss  their  value. 
At  the  risk  of  seeming  to  take  for  granted  some 
things  that  do  not  yet  enter  into  courses  of  popular 
instruction,  and  some  that  still  divide  the  judgment 
of  scientific  investigators,  the  sermon  must  brieily 
state  the  physical  arguments  of  the  materialist,  with- 
out proofs  or  illustrations ;  he,  at  least,  accepts  all 
the  facts,  and  more.  It  is  easy  to  make  a  sweeping 
denial  of  both  his  facts  and  his  conclusions ;  but  more 
fatal  to  him  to  accept,  if  possible,  the  stubborn  facts. 
We  proceed,  then,  to  indicate  the  grounds  which 
support  the  modern  forms  of  materialism. 

The  human  brain  can  be  traced  from  its  first  rudi- 
ments, among  the  earliest  animals,  gaining  new 
organs  at  each  step,  and  becoming  more  complicated, 
as  fresh  and  complex  circumstances  surrounded  it.:i: 


*  Some  materialists  accept  the  theory  of  the  spontaneous  development  of 
the  successive  forms  of  life  from  an  impulse  which  resided  in  the  original 
germ,  which,  they  suppose,  was  left  to  complete  its  history  without  any  subse- 
quent interference  of  the  creative  power.  Others  accept  the  authentic  doctrine 
of  science,  that  every  new  form  of  life  was  due  to  a  special  creative  act,  while 
the  great  idea,  so  far  from  being  dislocated,  earned  its  unity  through  these 
gradual  improvements :  so  that  the  past  appears  as  a  single  project  of  the 
Creator  maintained  by  successive  epochs,  and  binding  together  all  the  animal 
types,  not  by  leaving  the  last  to  evolve  the  next,  but  by  stringing  each  separ- 
ately upon  the  logic  of  one  unchanging  thought.  Thes  differing  views,  how- 
ever, do  not  affect  the  discussion  :  since  the  facts  of  animal  development,  upon 


It  seems  clear  that  the  human  brain  is  a  chronicle  of  the 
successive  development  of  animal  life.  Its  organs, 
from  the  lowest  upward,  mark  the  stages  which  ani- 
mate existence  has  occupied  its  passage  by  gradual 
improvement  up  to  the  climax  of  man.  Each  new 
organ  has  been  added  out  of  deference  to  a  new 
circumstance.  Through  the  countless  ages  which 
pioneered  the  earth  to  its  present  state,  there  existed 
a  nice  conformity  between  physical  conditions  and 
nervous  or  cerebral  development.  As  the  species  of 
animals  succeeded  each  other,  each  one  was  a  faithful 
representation  of  the  kind  of  earth  and  climate 
•which  surrounded  it :  for  inanimate  and  animate  na- 
ture moved  in  two  parallel  lines,  all  of  whose  points 
exactly  corresponded.  The  additions  made  by  Na- 
ture to  the  brain  which  she  seemed  to  be  engaged 
in  constructing,  neither  exceeded  nor  fell  short  of 
her  own  circumstances.  The  nervous  c*brd,  and 
afterwards  the  brain,  under  its  different  animal  names, 
always  found  itself  at  home :  and  as  nature  pro- 
ceeded, she  promoted  the  brain  to  a  new  organ  to 
preserve  the  harmony.  This  progress  was  so  defi- 
nite that  it  still  can  be  traced,  and  the  various  orders 
of  animals  which  now  live  confirm  this  gradual  and 
tentative  process  of  nature  in  her  construction  of 
the  human  brain.  Each  species  has  its  organs — each. 


the  false  interpretation  of  which  all  materialists  unite,  are  sufficiently  counte- 
nanced by  the  real  theory  to  serve  their  purpose.  Therefore  it  is  sufficient  if 
we  accept  them  upon  their  proper  grounds,  though  we  propose  to  reject  the 
material  result  which  thcv  are  forced  to  favor. 


8 


organ  belongs  to  an  animal  state — each  addition  cor- 
responds to  an  improvement:  and  all  of  this  past 
history  is  taken  up  by  the  human  brain,  and  rehearsed 
from  base  to  forehead,  with  just  so  much  of  a  sup- 
plement as  man  would  need  to  harmonize  with  the 
latest  conditions  of  nature.  Such,  divested  of  its 
appropriate  demonstration,  is  the  brain's  history ;  and 
it  furnishes  the  materialist  with  the  first  principle  of 
his  argument.  If,  he  says,  the  present  complex  state 
of  the  brain  has  resulted  from  a  gradual  accumula- 
tion of  its  organs,  each  of  which  has  been  added  ac- 
cording as  natural  circumstances  called  for  a  fresh 
faculty,  at  what  point  in  the  line  can  you  introduce 
an  independent  human  soul  ?  Provident  nature  has 
added  to  the  animal  kingdom  new  faculties,  one  after 
another :  and  these  faculties  are  repeated  by  man. 
If  the  animals  can  exercise  the  organs  which  devel- 
ope  these  faculties,  without  an  independent  spiritual 
essence,  why  is  it  necessary  to  presume  such  in  man, 
for  the  same  organs  ?  And  if  such  be  the  case  up 
to  the  point  where  human  life  commences,  why  in- 
troduce at  that  point  the  superfluity  of  a  soul  to 
animate  the  few  additional  organs  bestowed  on  man  ? 
The  life  of  God,  dispersed  through  the  channels  of 
nature,  has  been  sufficient  to  produce  these  wonder- 
ful refinements  of  animal  life,  till  at  last  the  human 
organization  has  raised  these  natural  faculties  to  their 
highest  power.  The  same  life  of  God  in  nature  is 
j  ust  as  competent  to  take  the  last  step,  as  to  take  any 
or  all  of  the  preceeding  steps,  without  the  expi" 


9 


of  creating  individual  souls.  At  no  point  in  the  se- 
ries have  the  facts  of  the  case  demanded  such  an 
interpolation.  Such  is  the  basis  of  modern  material- 
ism.  We  substantially  admit  its  facts,  and  for  many 
reasons  are  rejoiced  to  possess  them ;  but  we  have 
cause  for  objecting  to  the  interpretation  which  they 
receive. 

Upon  this  basis  the  materialist  takes  up  his  second 
position,  and  proceeds  to  ask  what  difference,  except 
in  degree,  there  is  between  man  and  the  animals  which 
rank  next  to  him  in  intelligence  and  varied  capacity. 
And  his  argument  becomes  more  subtle  and  bewil- 
dering at  every  step.  Lately,  researches  in  the  animal 
kingdom  have  been  rewarded  by  facts  whose  tenden- 
cy is  to  diminish  the  traditionary  difference  presumed 
by  man  between  his  own  powers  and  those  which 
animals  exercise.  It  is  perceived  that  animals  have 
the  ability  to  adapt  themselves  to  circumstances. 
Facts  come  to  us,  quite  as  well  authenticated  as  any 
scientific  facts  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  re- 
ceiving, to  show  that  many  animals  are  not  limited 
to  certain  inexorable  channels  of  instinct,  binding 
them,  like  machines,  to  definite  acts  and  products, 
but  that  they  share  man's  independent  capacity  for 
accommodating  himself  to  new  conditions.  They  seem 
to  be  able  to  meet  emergencies ;  they  seem  to  have 
something  which  ekes  out  their  instinct,  and  this  is 
so  marvellously  like  human  reflection,  that  no  man 
has  yet  been  able  to  define  the  difference.  This  en- 
croachment of  the  animal  has  been  progressive ;  at 


10 


different  times  men  have  assumed  different  powers 
as  the  ones  peculiar  to  themselves,  but  the  observer 
of  animal  life  has  claimed  them,  one  by  one,  and 
men  have  found  their  limits  circumscribed.  At  first 
men  supposed  that  animals  were  like  children's 
playthings,  regulated  to  a  set  performance,  or  like 
trees  and  flowers,  partaking  the  unconscious  life  of 
nature.  They  expected  a  doll  to  show  a  tendency 
to  accommodate  itself  to  a  child's  caprices,  as  soon 
as  an  animal  to  bring  any  help  to  its  regular  instincts. 
But  volumes  are  now  filled  with  cases  of  clear  ex- 
periment and  combination  among  animals ;  in  similar 
circumstances  it  would  be  said  that  man  reflected : 
he  would  use  the  same  organs  which  the  brain  of 
the  animal  possesses  also,  and  the  quality  of  the  re- 
sult in  both  cases  would  be  the  same.  So  man  was 
compelled  to  fall  back  upon  his  more  interior  attri- 
butes. Animals  possessed  a  capacity  for  experiment 
and  adaptation,  a  power  of  using  the  organs  of  their 
brain  in  combination,  a  forethought  that  reached  be- 
yond their  ordinary  instincts;  in  short,  they  have 
been  found  in  various  emergencies  acting  so  appro- 
priately, that  the  quality  of  reflection  upon  external 
things  could  not  be  denied  to  them.  But  they  have 
no  memory — said  man.  Memory  depends  upon  the 
subtle  power  of  association,  which  is  not  limited  by 
time  and  space.  The  perceptions  of  the  brute  are 
like  the  fragrance  of  flowers,  exhaled  daily  and  never 
recollected.  Man  is  impressible,  and  the  universal 
relation  between  all  ideas  can  recal  his  impressions. 


11 


Whereupon  brutes  indicated  to  their  friendly  observ- 
ers that  it  was  possible  for  them  to  remember ;  man 
might  call  association  a  subtle  power,  if  so,  then  the 
brute  so  far  was  subtle,  for  he  could  bridge  gulfs 
of  time  with  these  fine  agerial  impressions,  and  rest 
them,  with  every  occasion,  upon  piers  of  memory- 
And  bewildered  man  recollected  then  that  his  sense 
of  continuous  existence  resulted  only  from  the  power 
of  memory;  if  so,  a  thread  of  continuity  runs  also 
through  the  lives  of  brutes.  Of  course,  for  the  asso- 
ciation of  ideas  displays  itself  through  the  association 
of  the  groups  of  organs  in  the  brain ;  and  these  con- 
volutions bear  the  same  relation  to  each  other  in  the 
higher  animals  as  in  man.  The  animal  vindicated 
his  claim  to  the  qualities  of  reflection,  memory,  and 
continuity  of  existence.  Then  man,  to  establish  his 
superiority  to  the  animal,  committed  the  satire  of 
denying  that  it  had  passions:  Whereupon  arose  a 
prompt  vindication  of  revenge,  jealousy,  even  envy, 
curiosity  and  ambition,  and  of  late  there  seem  to  be 
reliable  instances  of  the  sense  of  shame  among  ani- 
mals. Never  before  was  it  suspected  that  the  brute 
had  a  consciousness  of  self.  Those  who  make  the 
latest  claim  that  personal  identity  is  the  distinguish- 
ing faculty  of  man,  are  on  the  point  of  leaving  this 
outpost  for  a  less  accessible  position.* 


*  It  is  possible  that  observers  have  sometimes  translated  the  actions  of 
brutes  into  the  language  of  their  own  fancy,  and  sometimes  have  projected 
what  they  wish  to  find  upon  what  they  really  see.  Animals  are  our  elder 
Scripture  :  their  obscure  texts  possibly  suffer  from  the  superfluous  ingenuity 


But  the  materialist  has  more  than  enough  for  the 
argument  which  he  meditates.  It  is  sufficient  if  he 
can  show  that  some  intelligent  results  of  the  animal 
brain  are  the  same  in  quality  as  some  intelligent  re- 
sults of  the  human  brain.  Observation  may  push 
the  parallel  farther,  and  bring  other  results  into  the 
same  harmony.  But  the  materialist  deems  that  he 
is  already  sufficiently  authorized  to  ask  his  question : 
if  no  independent  mind  is  necessary  to  produce  these 
qualities  among  animals,  why  is  it  necessary  among 
men  ?  Man  has  the  perfected  brain,  and  its  results 
may  vastly  exceed  in  degree  the  results  of  the  brains 
of  animals,  which  occupy  various  positions  on  this 
road  to  the  climax  of  man.  But  if  the  quality  of  the 
action  is  the  same  in  both,  why  suppose  that  in  one 
case  it  results  merely  from  a  brain,  but  in  the  other 
case  from  an  independent  soul  ?  Either  all  brains 
which  perform  similar  things  are  the  instruments  of 
independent  minds,  or  none  arc.  And  the  materialist 
permits  us  this  alternative.  We  accept  substantially 

of  commentators.  When  the  poet  marks  the  "  quick  jerboa,"  planted  above 
his  hole  like  a  note  of  admiration,  scanning  with  immense  surprise  the  in- 
truders upon  his  solitude,  he  exclaims,  "  none  such  as  he  for  a  wonder !"  From 
this  fanciful  burlesque  there  is  but  one  step  to  the  assertion  of  some  enthusi- 
astic observer  that  the  capacity  of  marvellousness  is  anticipated  by  the  jerboa 
nature's  rough  draught  of  himself  and  his  whole  class  of  credulous  seekers. 
Animal  typ?s  may  be  isolated  human  inclinations :  their  higher  forms  may 
prophecy  faculties  which  we  exercise  in  greater  freedom  only  because  we  hold 
them  in  ampler  combinations.  But  we  are  intoxicated  by  a  bold  comparison 
if  we  maintain  that  brutes  and  men  are  the  reverse  and  obverse  of  the  same 
medal.  It  is  quite  likely  that  more  strict  and  iinbiassed  observations  will 
diminish  the  extent  of  the  parallel  which  it  is  now  the  fashion  to  construct, 
and  pronounce  counterfeit  many  supposed  instances  of  animal  humanity. 


13 


the  curious  facts  which  make  hi*  argument  appear  so 
strong  :  we  rejoice  to  have  them,  because  they  are 
valuable  in  another  direction.  Even  if  it  be  discov- 
ered that  many  of  them  are  the  projections  of  lively 
human  fancy  upon  the  sphere  of  animal  life,  stiU 
enough  remain,  scientifically  attested,  to  show  an 
identity  of  quality  between  the  operations  of  the 
animal  and  human  brains.  But  the  answer  to  the 
materialist  is  not  affected  by  that  admission. 

He  nowT  proceeds  to  take  up  his  third  position  with 
certain  phenomena  which  belong  to  the  mesmeric 
state.  We  refer  to  the  excitement  of  the  brain's 
organs  at  the  will  of  the  mesmerizer,  and  with  no 
consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  subject.  And  he 
argues  thus :  if  the  human  brain  can  be  played  upon 
as  if  its  organs  were  like  the  keys  of  a  piano — if 
two  or  more  organs  can  be  excited  at  once  to  pro- 
duce a  balance  or  combination  of  powers — and  if,  by 
excitirrg  antagonistic  organs,  a  struggle  becomes  ap- 
parent in  which  the  larger  organs  win  the  field, — it 
follows  that  all  mental  manifestation  depends  upon 
the  excitement  of  these  organs  in  the  natural  or  the 
mesmeric  state,  and  that  the  relation  of  the  organs 
creates  and  developes  character,  without  Abolition  and 
independent  spirit.  He  proceeds  to  strengthen  this 
argument  by  another  class  of  facts, — those,  namely, 
in  which  the  operator  impresses  the  mind  of  the  sub- 
ject contrary  to  the  reality  of  things,  making  sweet 
appear  to  be  bitter,  a  friend  to  be  a  stranger,  an 
imaginary  peril  to  be  real, — in  short,  giving  the  will 


14 

no  opportunity  to  rectify  impressions  which  subvert 
all  our  regular  perceptions.  Could  these  results  take 
place  if  an  independent  spirit  stood  behind  the  brain 
to  endorse  or  reject  the  impressions  which  it  trans- 
mitted ?  * 

Such  are  the   positions  of  modern   materialism. 
The  interpretation  which  the  facts  have  received  de- 

*  It  is  more  convenient  to  anticipate  in  a  note  the  discussion  of  this  point. 
All  these  phenomena  depend  upon  a  state  in  which  the  person  cannot  will  to 
exercise  the  judging  power :  in  other  words,  the  mesmeric  state  holds  the  per- 
son subject  to  the  influence  of  strong  impressions,  because  it  keeps  the  will 
neutral  and  unsuspicious.     The  person  has  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  must 
adjust  and  test  the  impressions  which  the  brain  transmits.     He  believes  and 
acts  as  men  would  if  the  power  of  trying  their  perceptions  by  an  experienced 
judgment  did  not  naturally  belong  to  them.    Even  in  the  natural  state  people 
submit  to  impressions  which  are  strong  enough  to  suspend  the  judgment,  until 
the  spell  lifts,  and  they  resume  their  usual  discriminations.     The  mesmeric 
state  overcomes   the  whole  mind  with  this  submissiveness.     The  operator 
makes  a  mistake  when  he  says  that  his  subject  "  has  no  will,''  or  that  he  affects 
the  will  at  pleasure.     Even  when  the  senses  are  entirely  suspended,  his  effect 
is  produced  merely  through  the  usual  organs  of  perception  and  reflection,  while 
the  bubject  is  in  a  state  that  exaggerates  his  personal  impressiveness.    And  it 
is  noticeable  that  he  cannot  affect  those  whose  total  weight  of  experience  and 
judgment  is  continually  preponderating  during  his  attempt.     Such  persons 
naturally  escape  the  tyranny  of  all  powerful  impressions.     The  doctrine  of  a 
spirit  distinct  from  the  organization  remains  unimpeached  by  all  these  phe- 
nomena.    Let  their  domain  be  extended,  and  their  special  usefulness  estab- 
lished.   It  is  just  as  likely  that  the  mind,  under  mesmeric  conditions,  may  be 
influenced  through  certain  organs  to  use  those  organs,  as  under  natural  condi- 
tion.   In  the  natural  state,  the  presentation  of  an  object  to  a  sense  excites  the 
mind  to  continue  the  use  of  that  sense,  with  attention  turned  towards  the  sensu- 
ous impressions  :    mental  impressions  occupy  the  attention  in  the  same  man- 
ner.    In  the  mesmeric  state,  mental  impressions  arc  transmitted  according  to 
the  same  laws,  and  their  corresponding  organs  excited  to  a  continuance.     Sen- 
sor and  motor  nerves  pass  to  and  from  each  limb  of  the  body  :  each  cerebral 
organ  also  has  its  sensor  and  motor  system.     It  would  be  as  absurd  to  say 
that  the  finger,  when  affected,  originates  the  brain,  as  that  the  brain  originates 
tlie  mind  merely  because  its  organs  can  transmit  impressions  in  the  mesmeric 
us  well  as  natural  state. 


15 


stroys  the  spiritual  life  of  man :  the  brain  limits  his 
tenure  of  existence,  its  organs  create  his  character 
and  forestall  his  moral  responsibility.  The  doctrine 
of  the  second  birth  becomes  the  lucky  accident  of  a 
few  men  whose  moral  organs  predominate  :  the  pur- 
pose of  life  is  simply  to  develope  the  resources  of 
this  planet,  and  men  are  the  poor  coral  insects  whose 
innumerable  deaths  uprear  some  final  cause  of  God. 
Are  these  scientific  facts,  then,  mere  objects  of  our 
curiosity,  and  harmless  diversions  for  the  million  ? 
On  the  contrary,  they  subserve  a  terrible  ocular  de- 
ception, and  the  million  lose  their  hope  and  resign 
their  dignity  as  they  perceive  the  imbecility  of  the 
old  arguments  amid  these  subtle  novelties.  If  there 
be  an  object  in  preaching,  and  if  the  Christian  Church 
perceive  its  lofty  mission  to  develope  the  harmonies 
of  God  within  the  souls  of  men,  and  to  educate  them 
for  God's  ulterior  purpose,  the  religious  man  must 
become  an  investigator,  and  furnish  the  dangerous 
half-knowledge  of  the  age  with  its  sublime  interpre- 
tation. His  own  faith  will  not  suffice,  his  own  senti- 
ments are  not  an  answer :  the  invisible  things  of  the 
spirit  will  not  be  accepted  on  the  strength  of  his  per- 
sonal enthusiasm.  The  fine  operations  of  his  own 
brain  will  be  cited  to  testify  against  the  words  of  his 
mouth  as  he  speaks  of  regeneration  and  the  inde- 
pendent soul.  The  traditions  of  the  Church  may  be 
grateful  to  those  who  are  already  convinced,  or  whom 
no  facts  disturb,  but  they  do  not  rest  in  that  line  of 
argument  which  is  essential  to  meet  the  present 


emergency,  to  keep  down  these  heady  and  tumultu- 
ous facts,  and  chain  them  to  their  oars.  The  religious 

'  O 

man  must  become  a  student  of  the  laws  of  God,  if  he 
would  declare  His  whole  counsel,  and  subordinate 
the  freedom  of  these  fervid  times  to  the  order  and 
the  great  thoughts  of  the  Creator.  How  vast  this 
field  lies  before  us  :  the  importance  of  our  present 
subject  tempts  us  to  coast  its  margin :  perchance 
tokens  of  immortality  scattered  here  to  refute  this 
domineering  materialism  mav  reward  our  search. 

O  •/ 

It  need  not  trouble  us  at  all  that  animals  manifest 
the  same  mental  quality  with  man.  Let  the  fact  bo 
accepted.  The  fault  is,  we  have  not  been  ready  to 
say  that  a  brain  has  certain  powers  and  tendencies 
of  itself,  without  an  individual  spirit.  We  have  been 
afraid  lest  in  saying  that  we  should  prove  too  much 
bv  including  the  brains  of  men.  We  wish  to  include 

tt 

them  to  a  limited  extent,  while  beyond  a  certain  line 
we  could  not  venture  if  we  would.  All  the  phenom- 
ena of  animal  life,  including  ever}'  case  of  adaptation 
and  experiment,  result  from  the  finite  animal  brain, 
and  wherever  they  coincide  with  the  quality  of 
human  action,  they  indicate  that  the  human  brain, 
BO  far,  might  operate  as  a  finite  brain,  without  an 
independent  soul.  This  position  is  objectionable  only 
in  case  that  we  have  nothing  else  to  say.  But  we 
need  not  fear  to  give  a  wide  range  to  animal  action : 
for  to  this  finite  capacity  human  nature  annexes  the 
invisible  world  of  God.  Look  at  the  facts  in  every 
sphere  of  nature.  You  will  find  adaptation  and  ex- 


17 


periment  from  the  fern  to  the  oak;  you  will  see 
instinct  reinforced  by  a  power  of  accommodation 
from  the  polypus  to  the  elephant.  It  makes  no 
difference  whether  you  say  that  God  personally 
dwells  in  all  these  forms  of  life,  or  whether  you  say 
that  God  sustains  the  laws  which  secure  their  action. 
The  point  is  this,  that  every  thing  is  able  to  go  a 
little  beyond  its  inevitable  and  natural  routine,  if 
circumstances  make  it  necessary.  As  the  animal 
brain  developes  through  the  lower  into  the  higher 
forms,  this  power  of  adaptation  increases,  till  it  reaches 
the  qualities  of  reflection  and  memory.  There  is  no 
point  in  the  whole  line  where  you  find  it  necessary 
to  introduce  a  soul ;  the  brain  itself,  like  the  oak  and 
the  plant,  is  adequate  to  meet  its  surrounding  condi- 
tions. What  matter  is  able  to  effect  by  means  of 
the  elements  of  nature  under  divine,  law,  is  repre- 
sented by  the  animal  brain,  which  is  the  most  subtle 
material  instrument.  An  animal's  brain  seeks  food, 
and  if  necessary,  it  lays  a  plan  to  procure  it :  the 
same  brain  defends  itself,  and  if  needful,  it  uses  cau- 
tion, secrecy  and  artifice :  it  remembers  where  it 
procured  water ;  in  the  process  of  migration  it  ac- 
commodates itself  to  unexpected  states  of  the  earth 
and  air :  in  the  vicinity  of  man  it  developes  more 
cunning  than  its  wild  life  requires;  it  imitates  many 
human  actions :  the  traits  of  the  dog  and  the  sagac- 
ity of  the  elephant  show  what  a  brain  can  do  without 
a  soul.  Let  these  traits  multiply  and  this  sagacity 
become  more  striking,  still  the  brain  as  the  highest 
2 


18 


form  of  nervous  organization,  would  account  for  all. 
It  belongs  to  this  planet  and  has  a  conformity  with 
it,  as  much  as  the  shooting  crystal  and  the  growing 
tree.  And  it  even  has  a  consciousness  of  its  own  op- 
erations. To  be  conscious  of  what  it  is  doing,  the 
nerve  of  the  polypus  does  not  need  a  soul  any  more 
than  the  brain  of  the  elephant :  for  consciousness  is 
nothing  but  a  state  of  action.  Then  let  the  animal 
do  his  best,  and  let  us  apply  the  words  reflection, 
memory,  consciousness,  sagacity,  to  what  he  does,  he 
still  does  nothing  that  a  brain  cannot  do  without  a 
personal  soul.  The  words  wTe  apply  do  not  represent 
the  peculiar  characteristics  of  a  soul ;  even  the  word 
reflection,  though  it  enjoys  an  exaggerated  value,  is 
not  inappropriate  to  express  the  cogitations  of  some 
•observing  animals.  The  human  brain  repeats  these 
animal  powers  because  it  repeats  the  corresponding 
organs.  Take  away  from  man  his  additional  organs 
and  take  away  his  soul,  and  the  rest  of  his  brain 
would  perform  its  conscious  functions  as  successfully 
as  the  highest  animal's,  since  such  is  the  .brain's  pre- 
destined quality.  Now  add  the  other  organs  to  man's 
brain ;  have  we  not  involved  ourselves  to  the  extent 
of  admitting  that  they  also  could  operate,  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  brain,  without  a  soul  ?  No ; 
because  their  action  does  not  depend  upon  circum- 
stances and  external  impressions.  The  whole  power 
•of  the  animal  brain  is  consumed  in  an  accommoda- 
tion to  earthly  circumstances,  relating  to  nature  or 
to  man.  Furnish  an  elephant's  brain  with  the  organ 


19 


of  ideality  5  he  would  trumpet  no  lyric  without  the 
ideals  of  the  soul,,  for  the  circumstances  of  earth  do 
not  suggest  them  either  to  man  or  brute.  Earth 
provides  only  the  coloring  and  form.  Plant  causality 
in  the  forehead  of  the  ape :  he  has  imitation  and  the 
power  of  making  experiments,  for  earth  demands 
them.  But  the  earth  does  not  suggest  the  laws  of 
logic  either  to  man  or  brute;  they  are  anterior 
forms  of  the  human  soul,  and  through  causality  they 
arrange  the  corresponding  harmonies  -of  creation. 
Causality  uses  the  material  furnished  by  the  other 
organs,  but  it  brings  to  them  the  primitive  idea  of 
unity,  which  the  world  does  not  begin  to  suggest  till 
the  soul  has  fettered  its  diversities,  and  made  its 
changes  repeat  the  name  of  the  unchangeable. 
Find  the  men  who  stand  next  above  the  brute,  and 
you  find  the  primitive  idea  of  God,  which  indeed  is 
forced  to  use  the  poor  material  of  the  other  organs 
to  frame  their  conception  of  a  God.  The  beast 
shudders  at  the  presageful  thunder,  and  cowers 
through  the  mysterious  minutes  of  an  eclipse ; 
but  an  invisible  idea  is  needed  to  bring  the  dignity 
of  an  invisible  agency  to  human  fear.  And  there  is 
no  man  so  low  who  does  not  cherish  the  idea  of  the 
continuity  of  his  existence,  though  he  is  obliged  to 
build  his  future  state  out  of  the  scenery  of  earth :  a 
sufficient  proof  in  itself  that  earth  has  nothing  to 
suggest  the  idea.*  If  the  earth  cannot  furnish  these 

*  The  materialist  declares  that  people  imagine  an  ideal,  antl  take  the  want 
for  a  proof  that  this  ideal  corresponds  to  some  reality  and  deserves  fulfilment. 


20 


conceptions,  the  addition  of  organs  to  the  humafi 
brain  cannot  discover  them,  for  the  natural  brain  is 
conversant  with  things  in  the  natural  sphere.  But 
suppose  a  soul,  containing  these  ideas  as  part  of  its 
individual  life  and  harmony,  and  you  account  for  the 
addition  of  the  organs  and  the  stimulus  with  which 
they  work.  Behind  the  organs  which  man  inherits 
from  the  animal,  and  which  domesticate  him  on  earth, 
there  exist  the  immutable  forms  in  which  man 
classifies  his  "knowledge  and  reduces  to  order  his  per- 
ceptions :  also  the  laws  of  logic,  which  are  pure  forms 
of  thought,  and  the  idea  of  unity,  and  of  causality. 
There  exists  too  the  consciousness  of  right  and  wrong, 
which  cannot  be  the  mere  result  of  a  proportion 
among  the  organs  of  the  brain,  because  it  is  constantly 
referring  to  an  invisible  source  of  legislation.  Besides, 
were  right  only  a  proportion  and  harmony  of  the 
brain,  and  wrong  only  a  defect  in  certain  organs, 
there  would  be  a  corresponding  consciousness  of  pro- 

But  in  his  history  of  the  braiii  he  has  already  shoirn  HS  that  every  organ  cor- 
responds to  definite  conditions,  and  that  not  one  is  created  except  to  serve  a 
practical  necessity.  Now  accept  for  a  moment  his  own  scheme  which  makes 
mind  and  life  to  be  the  result  of  organization.  Two  organs  of  the  brain,  hope 
and  ideality  must  concur  for  the  composition  of  an  idea  of  some  fatnre  condi- 
tion. But  according  to  his  assertion  that  the  want  of  an  ideal  is  mistaken  for 
proof  of  a  corresponding  reality,  thc.se  two  organs  are  futile  and  superfluous. 
Why  should  the  brain  possess  organs  whose  action  is  a  deception,  and  whose 
promise  never  conducts  to  a  reality  1  What  is  to  be  done  with  this  abortive 
tendency,  except  finally  to  stifle  it  in  the  dust  of  the  body's  decay  ?  As  well 
might  the  organs  which  regulate  the  desire  and  choice  of  food  be  cheated  of 
their  corresponding  nutriment.  Therefore  the  crudeness  of  human  ideals, 
and  their  continual  doom  of  disappointment,  so  far  from  destroying  belief  in 
conceptions  that  are  independent  of  the  brain's  untutored  organs,  corroborate? 
their  pre-existcncc. 


21 


portion  or  of  defect,  but  not  a  consciousness  of  per- 
sonal degradation,  nor  a  sense  of  having  violated 
something  which  should  be  served  by  better  educated 
organs :  something  that  mourns  even  when  subjected 
to  the  brain's  hereditary  necessities.  It  is  here  that 
the  personal  soul  displays  its  special  independence  of 
the  organs  which  it  uses :  it  cannot  transcend  their 
limits,  nor  entirely  repair  their  deficiencies,  but  it  con- 
tinues to  have  a  distinct  consciousness  of  ideal  good- 
ness worthy  to  have  better  proportioned  and  more 
obedient  organs.  The  brain  may  limit  the  responsi- 
bility, but  cannot  reduce  the  absolute  principles  of  a 
human  souL  If  the  principles  did  not  exceed  the 
responsibility,  man's  conscience  would  be  rent  by  no 
regrets. 

It  is  plain  that  this  argument,  based  upon  the 
ideas  which  are  not  the  results  of  external  im- 
pressions, might  be  wrought  much  further.  Even 
if  you  can  discern  no  physical  difference  between 
the  brain  of  man  and  that  of  the  highest  ani- 
mal, so  that  their  convolutions,  side  by  side,  shall 
seem  precisely  to  correspond,  you  have  still  the 
greater  task  to  show  that  the  primitive  ideas,  which 
make  use  of  man's  best  organs,  belong  to  the  sphere 
of  earth  and  are  suggested  by  external  perceptions. 
It  is  difficult  to  see  how  an  empirical  philosophy, 
which  develop  es  everything  out  of  the  inductive 
method,  could  answer  modern  materialism.  To  say 
.  that  we  are  indebted  to  external  hints  from  visible 
objects  for  the  first  knowledge  which  we  have  of  the 


22 


law  of  unity,  of  cause  and  effect,  and  of  the  pro- 
gressive method  of  creation,  is  the  same  as  sa}dng 
that  the  universe  suggested  to  the  Creator  the  laws 
which  should  regulate  its  construction.  In  other 
words,  it  is  impossible  for  a  created  thing  to  discover 
the  system  of  which  it  is  a  part,  unless  the  central 
ideas  and  method  of  that  system  be  confided  to  it  in 
the  shape  of  intuitions,  which  gradually  discover  how 
nature  corresponds  to  them.  The  machine  might  as 
soon  explain  to  other  machines  the  intelligent  com- 
binations of  the  mechanic  who  created  it.  It  cer- 
tainly must  be  an  axiom,  to  be  accepted  as  the  basis 
of  this  discussion,  that  creation  cannot  suggest  to  any 
parts  of  creation  the  previous  laws  of  the  Creator. 
If  man  establishes  his  science  upon  such  laws,  it  is  a 
proof  that  he  is  not  only  a  part  of  creation,  in  the 
natural  order,  but  also  the  member  of  a  spiritual 
order,  by  virtue  of  which  he  has  conceptions  of  the 
laws  which  made  him.  Otherwise  we  could  find  no 
more  difference  between  an  elephant  and  a  Hotten- 
tot than  between  a  Hottentot  and  a  Newton :  and 
we  should  either  have  to  deny  that  modern  science 
does  follow  the  lines  of  God's  laws,  or  else  expect  to 
overhear  two  acorns  or  two  apes  grow  scientific  about 
each  other.  But  when  we  see  daily  how  all  created 
things  hasten  to  fall  in  with  the  logic  of  the  best 
thinkers  and  to  crystalize  along  the  lines  which  they 
draw,  we  know  that  such  lines  are  drawn  parallel 
with  God's  idea«,  and  that  science  is  made  in  the 
image  of  the  Creator. 


23 


If  now  the  materialist  repeats  to  you  his  history 
of  the  human  brain,  and  the  coincidences  of  animal 
sagacity,  and  asks  you  at  what  point  along  the  whole 
line  an  independent  soul  can  be  interpolated,  you  can 
show  him  it  is  precisely  at  the  point  where  the  brain 
uses  organs  in  correspondence  with  super-terrestrial 
ideas.  Excepting  those  organs  thus  directed,  the 
human  brain  itself  is  an  animal  brain,  and  endowed  with 
no  continuous  existence :  it  carries  the  animal  sagac- 
ities to  their  highest  point,  but  the  horizon  of  the  planet 
cuts  them  off,  and  they  find  their  beginning  and  their 
ending  here.  It  might  be  shown  how  the  presence 
of  the  super-terrestrial  ideas  affect  and  modify  merely 
animal  and  perceptive  organs.  They  raise  the  ani- 
mal p'art  of  the  human  brain  to  a  higher  power,  but 
without  altering  its  instinctive  character :  and  when 
they  oppose  its  instinctive  character,  they  speak  in 
the  language  of  the  tempted  apostle,  to  furnish 
another  clear  distinction  that  separates  us  from  the 
brute.  But  this  point  would  carry  us  too  far.  The 
hour  of  death  divides  the  human  soul  from  its  ani- 
mal inheritance,  and  it  enters  upon  a  new  state  with 
nothing  in  its  essence  that  corresponds  to  the  brain's 
temporalities ;  the  rudiments  of  the  spiritual  body 
flow  from  the  highest  attributes  which  give  to  man 
his  present  distinction ;  animals  are  left  behind — man, 
as  a  sagacious,  experimenting,  perceptive,  combining- 
animal,  yields  up  his  organs  to  the  common  clay : 
and  the  new  body  takes  form  around  the  indepen- 
dent intuitions,  the  laws  of  thought,  the  principles 


of  harmony  and  law.  At  death  men  lose  all  acciden- 
tal relations,  and  meet  each  other  on  the  ground  of  gen- 
uine affinities ;  and  these  affinities,  as  well  as  the  dis- 
tinctions of  wit,  the  analogies  of  humor,  and  the 
creative  combinations  of  ideality,  have  their  foot 
in  the  very  structure  and  essence  of  the  soul. 
What  man  leaves  behind,  however  valuable  and 
brilliant  it  may  now  seem,  will  be  precisely  that 
which  the  second  state-  will  find  superfluous.  As 
well  import  into  that  state  the  earth  itself,  as  the 
faculties  corresponding  to  the  brain  which  earth  con- 
structed. There  is  a  natural  brain,  and  there  will  be 
a  spiritual  brain ;  the  former  shares  the  mortality  of 
the  body  which  it  uses,  and  its  gifts  cannot  pass  into 
a  state  which  has  nothing  to  evolve  then*  action. 

It  is  proper  to  notice  here  a  difficulty  which  is 
made  by  supposing  that  God  has  been  engaged  in 
creating  upon  earth  forms  that  correspond  to  spirit- 
ual forms,  and  that  exist  necessarily  because  their 
ideas  existed  first.  The  Swedenborgian  view,  with 
its  doctrine  of  things  in  heaven  corresponding  to 
things  on  earth,  has  strengthened  this  mystical  idea 
of  creation;  so  that  now  we  frequently  hear  that 
animals  exist  because  their  types  pre-exist  in  the  di- 
vine mind ;  from  this  to  a  belief  in  the  immortality 
of  animals  there  is  but  a  single  step.  But  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  this  idea  of  creation  harmon- 
izes with  science.  Creation  has  been  gradual,  and 
every  step  of  it  has  been  occupied  with  an  imperfect 
form:  it  cannot  be  true  that  these  forms  have  cor- 


25 


responded  to  spiritual  ideas  or  forms.  Is  it  not  more 
just  to  represent  the  Creator  as  seeking  to  embody 
in  the  universe  His  ideal  of  spiritual  existence,  and 
that  here  He  has  given  a  human  soul  in  its  first  state, 
with  an  appropriate  environment?  What  then  are 
all  the  forms  which  crowded  previous  ages,  and  whose 
fossils  we  sometimes  see,  but  fragmentary  models 
made  and  broken;  what  were  they  but  the  tenta- 
tive efforts  of  the  Creative  Power  on  its  road  to  the 
consummation  of  its  ideal?  Not  necessary  forms 
with  spiritual  correspondencies,  but  experimental 
forms  faintly  prophecying  future  excellencies,  and 
with  no  corresponding  realities  in  the  mind  of  God 
to  give  them  permanence,  any  more  than  the  clumsy 
models  have  in  the  mind  of  the  sculptor  who  makes 
and  breaks  them  up,  one  after  another,  on  the  road 
to  his  first  perfected  group.  Those  monstrous  crea- 
tures of  the  geological  epochs  were  the  first  tossings 
up  of  the  plastic  material.  What  permanence  could 
God  confer,  by  His 'essential  thought  or  by  spiritual 
types,  upon  the  natures  of  those  extinct  Saurians, — 
violations  of  beauty  and  eternal  fitness:  heaven 
never  shuddered  at  their  correspondencies,  and  the 
improving  earth  has  huddled  them  into  her  recesses ! 
And  at  what  point,  either  in  the  life  of  past  or 
present  species,  can  these  extempore  devices,  no  lon- 
ger subordinate  to  a  chief  conception,  begin  them- 
selves to  represent  divine  decrees?  So  far  from 
believing  that  the  dog  and  the  elephant  are  reduced 
from  essential  forms  which  must  forever  pre-exist  in 


26 


the  Creator's  mind,  we  might  more  safely  imagine, 
with  Genesis,  that  He  says,  "  it  repenteth  me  that  I 
have  made  them."  Compared  with  His  ideal  pur- 
pose they  are  abortive  fragments,  rough-casted, 
broken,  recast,  again  rejected,  refined  upon,  and 
slowly  humanized  .in  His  great  inspiration  of  the 
universe.  As  well  concede  continuous  existence  to 
the  megatherium  as  to  the  faithful  dog  whom  some 
half  surmise  will  bear  them  company.  As  well  ex- 
pect to  find  in  heaven  correspondencies  of  the  one  as 
of  the  other.  They  were  rough  draughts  of  nature ; 
they  served  God's  uses  in  His  gradual  civilization  of 
chaos ;  but  as  well  expect  to  find  in  God  the  neces- 
sary type  of  chaos  as  of  these  chaotic  fragments. 
Let  them  all  crumble  to  the  dust — let  the  bright 
animals  enjoy  their  brief  hour  of  prophecy,  and  let 
the  earth  resume  so  much  of  ourselves  as  earth  ex- 
cited. Continuous  life  and  spiritual  forms  belong 
only  to  immutable  ideas  in  which  God  sees  His  im- 
age. The  states  which  yet  lie  before  us  undiscovered, 
and  in  which  our  higher  functions  already  feel  that 
they  will  have  a  ministry,  will  vindicate  the  patience 
of  God's  creative  power,  till  at  last  we  shall  see  all 
at  once  the  true  correspondence  to  these  travailing 
epochs  of  creation,  when  we  see  the  glorious  mani- 
festation of  the  Sons  of  God.  Follow  the  steps  of 
God's  thought;  permit  His  unfinished  forms  to  sleep. 
Do  not  turn  the  second  state  into  a  museum  of  earth's 
monstrosities,  or  expect  to  travel  thitherward  with 
your  menagerie.  Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead 


27 


in  its  successive  strata ;  and  yield  all  the  organs  of 
the  temporal  man  to  the  same  unregretful  oblivion. 
"They  shall  perish;  but  Thou  remainest,  and  they 
all  shall  wax  old  as  doth  a  garment :  and  as  a  vesture 
shalt  thou  fold  them  up,  and  they  shall  be  changed." 
But  the  heirs  of  the  Spirit  sigh  for  perfected  forms. 
The  materialist  calls  upon  man  to  lay  aside  his 
selfish  hope  of  a  continuous  existence,  and  to  be 
content  to  subserve'  the  purposes  of  God  as  a  finite 
instrument,  preparing  some  new  epoch,  which  shall 
be  enacted  upon  a  subdued  and  elaborated  planet. 
Man,  says  he,  is  the  perishable  agent  for  this  devel- 
opement  and  civilization  of  nature:  and  if,  in  this 
process,  he  also  harmonizes  the  human  faculties,  so 
as  to  secure  at  last  a  preponderance  to  his  moralities 
and  decencies,  he  will  live  in  sumptuous  tranquillity, 
and  add  the  furtherance  of  his  goodness  to  the  final 
cause  of  creation.  Even  though  man  is  finite,  he  has 
every  motive  to  obey  his  better  impulses,  till  all  the  or- 
gans of  the  human  brain  sound  a  perfect  chord,  prelud- 
ing the  descent  of  some  predestined  New  Jerusalem. 
Let  man  devote  himself  to  God's  future  intention, 
though  the  dust  of  his  brain  drink  up  all  his  trem- 
bling emotions,  and  the  costly  shower  sink  into  the 
still  equilibrium  of  the  grave.  It  is  noble  in  man  td 
ignore  his  personality,  and  like  the  dead  limpet  leave 
his  habitation  for  the  future  uses  of  God.  So  speaks 
the  materialist.  We  recognize  that  man  reaches  his 
true  dignity  when  he  consents  to  be  the  minister  of 
God,  but  the  facts  of  man  and  of  nature  forbid  us  to 


28 


enhance  the  dignity  of  his  sacrifice  by  supposing  his 
personal  annihilation.  We  accept  the  statement  of 
the  materialist :  man  is  the  agent  for  the  civilization 
of  the  earth  and  of  himself.  Out  of  that  comes  the 
moral  argument  to  prove  that  man  is  not  a  finite 
instrument.  For,  let  me  ask,  where  can  there  be  any 
improvement  that  will  harmonize  with  the  report 
which  the  soul  makes  of  the  moral  nature  of  God, 
except  the  improvement  of  individual  souls  ?  The 
future  reduction  of  Nature's  elements  to  scientific 
use  and  play,  though  it  fulfil  all  the  earth's  possible 
conditions  and  energies,  will  only  furnish  the  land- 
scape to  the  soul's  first  state.  Zones  of  the  earth 
subdued  and  fertilized  will  be  her  embossed  girdles 
put  on  for  the  ovations  of  the  human  soul.  The  cun- 
ning artificer  is  merely  adorned  and  accommodated 
with  his  work :  the  brightest  moments  of  earth  will 
only  be  her  choice  vintages  yielded  to  his  future 
festival  of  triumph.  The  soul  will  taste  the  elabora- 
ted drops,  but  its  higher  powers,  refusing  to  be  cor- 
rupted by  the  luxury,  will  find  in  their  own  improve- 
ment only  a  purpose  worthy  of  the  Creator.  The 
whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth,  waiting  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  life  of  God  in  individual 
souls.  What  other  species  of  improvement  is  worth 
the  name  ?  If  human  souls  cease  to  exist,  the  whole 
object  of  successive  generations  is  lost>  unless  we 
suppose  that  God,  like  an  impassive  artist,  is  amusing 
himself  with  the  fine  coloring  of  human  sentiments 
and  the  world's  granite  of  principles.  To  what  end 


do  generations  of  men  develope  and  improve- 
merely  that  God  may  compose  His  epic  of  a  universe, 
by  cantos  of  planets,  enriching  it  with  the  culture 
of  earth  and  the  manifold  hopes  of  man  ?  That 
would  not  be  an  epic,  but  a  heartless  travesty  of  the 
sublime  idea  of  individual  improvement.  It  would 
be  a  great  Egypt,  dead,  buried  in  sand,  choked  with  the 
mummy-dust  of  its  own  developing  Egyptians.  In 
planet-scenery  and  animal  life  we  perceive  the  play 
of  infinite  energies';  but  in  the  refinement  of  prin- 
ciples in  individual  souls  we  perceive  the  seriousness 
of  God.  Annihilate  those  souls,  and  creation  be- 
comes a  miserable  comedy:  because  spiritual  im- 
provement without  spiritual  permanence  is  an 
incongruity.  The  final  purpose  of  God  must  be 
mixed  up  with  the  fortune  of  individual  men,  be- 
cause they  contain  the  permanence  of  heavenly  prin- 
ciples :  as  soon  sever  the  threads  of  universal  gravita- 
tion, as  destroy  these  moral  immutabilities  which  roll 
around  the  centre  of  a  God. 

Notice  too,  what  a  surplus  of  activity  is  bestowed 
upon  man.  The  higher  organs  manifest  an  exuber- 
ance which  earth  does  not  exhaust.  The  animal  and 
perceptive  organs  are  fairly  matched  with  temporal 
conditions,  and  they  have  no  ambition  to  exceed  the 
exigencies  of  any  given  moment.  But  the  powers 
which  express  the  laws  of  thought,  the  divine  har- 
monies, and  the  intuitive  principles,  spurn  the  earth 
in  fierce  energy,  chafing  at  its  limits,  always  outrun* 
hing  the  task  for  the  day.  Among  them,  there  is 


30 


more  outlay  than  is  needed  for  the  earth's  improve* 
ment,  or  for  their  own  adjustment  with  terrestrial 
conditions.  What  does  the  surplus  mean  ?  Animals 
have  it  not :  they  simply  and  precisely  conform  to 
their  conditions :  their  reflections  can  only  correspond 
to  the  stress  of  the  moment.  Call  them  out  by  for- 
cible impressions,  and  they  can  attempt  to  rise  to  the 
level  of  your  teachings:  alter  their  conditions,  or 
interfere  with  that  average  behavior  which  is  called 
their  instincts,  and  they  can  experiment  to  accom- 
modate themselves  to  the  emergency.  But  they 
never  rise  above  it,  nor  anticipate  a  state  of  wider 
activities  by  an  exuberance  which  overflows  the 
present.  Man,  besides  conforming  to  external  im- 
pressions, comes  furnished  with  primitive  tendencies, 
like  that,  for  instance,  which  inspires  an  artist  with  a 
plan  but  disgusts  him  with  its  fulfilment.  The  sur- 
plus of  idea  above  his  production  demands  satisfac- 
tion, but  the  human  brain  reports  that  earth  has  not 
colors  tender  enough,  or  marbles  plastic  enough  to  fix 
his  thought.  Fortunate,  disappointed  artist — if  the 
sounds  or  colors  of  earth  could  contain  his  ideal, 
earth  would  be  greater  than  himself,  and  the  forms 
of  his  thought  would  be  his  grave.  Weary  with 
systematic  failure,  and  fretted  with  the  constant  beat 
of  this  illimitable  tide  upon  his  brain,.at  last  he  turns 
his  back  upon  the  baffling  material,  and  seeks  new 
quarries  of  a  more  celestial  flush.  Earth  never  dis- 
appoints the  brain  of  the  animal :  her  care  for  the 
animal  part  of  the  human  brain  is  motherly  and 


31 


genial ;  but  when  her  foster-child  lets  loose  the  riot 
of  heaven  amid  the  moderate  economies  of  her 
mansion,  and  turns  them  into  properties  for  his  im- 
possible dramas,  her  unsympathetic  tolerance  dismisses 
him  to  seek  an  ampler  providence.  It  is  as  if  the 
repulses  of  earth  were  intentioned  to  send  the  spirit 
out  of  her  attraction,  that  it  may  be  caught  in  the 
drift  beyond. 


It  is  obvious  that  many  points,  lying  naturally  in 
the  direction  of  this  argument,  remain  unnoticed ; 
but  they  must  defer  to  the  services  of  this  occasion. 
Such  services  are  prompted  by  the  expectation  of 
our  higher  powers,  that  another  state  will  call  them 
to  appropriate  ministries  and  consume  the  excess  for 
which  earth  has  no  employment.  Nobler  circumstan- 
ces will  interest  faculties  which  the  friendly  but  re- 
stricted, earth  cannot  tempt  to  a  hearty  expression. 
The  ordination  consecrates  invisible  powers  to  the 
service  of  the  thoughts  of  God.  Its  prayers  have 
the  voices  of  heralds:  they  seem  to  summon  us  to 
meet  upon  the  boundary  of  earth,  to  contemplate 
the  untried  journey  and  commence  the  preparation 
of  our  powers.  It  is  as  if  we  stood  for  a  moment  at 
the  point  where  death  one  day  will  leave  us,  to  see 
for  ourselves  what  faculties  must  be  collected  to 
make  that  little  step  across  the  line  of  the  shadow, 
Our  prayers  anticipate,  with  faint  resemblance, 
death's  kindly  office :  they  lift  us  a  little,  and  we  see 


JICSB  LIBRARY: 


32 


with  satisfaction  another  horizon  enclosing  fields  that 
swarm  with  wonderful  activities.  My  friend,  let  us 
think  and  speak  to  prepare  and  send  forth  more  la- 
borers unto  that  harvest.  When  all  of  us  shall  be 
gathered  in  those  fields,  whose  limits  are  thoughts, 
and  whose  ripening  air  is  love,  may  we  find  the  in* 
visible  emotions  of  this  day  justified  against  all 
earth's  deceptions  and  degrading  courses. 


W 


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